[Anonymous]

[esselle]

Has anybody experienced the new “drop-off” process which seems to have been put in place at CDG 2 recently?

Having popped over to Paris for a dinner (Le Train Bleu at Gare de Lyon; always impressive and, I understand, to be refurbished soon), I was driven into CDG this morning for my flight home.

Each of the drop-off bays in the CDG 2 halls is now controlled by a new parking system. As each hall is approached by two lanes, the new system actually, at the point of entry, divides these into three, whereby you have to pass through a barrier. As soon as you pass through the barrier, the three lanes are filtered into 1. This causes a bottleneck. You are then directed along a single lane until you find a free parking bay on your left. All the while, people in hi-viz jackets gesticulate madly and blow their whistles.

The queue to get into 2E starts at the entrance to 2C. Getting from 2C to 2E this morning took about 30 minutes. I learnt some words in French from my driver this morning that I had not heard before.

CDG has long been my least favourite airport. What I saw this morning appeared to be chaos theory gone mad.

Anybody else been through this nonsense?

[DavidGordon10]

I’ve not experienced this – but, just over a week ago, there was one solo immigration officer for a huge (~150 – 200) queue from the Schengen area into the non-Schengen. And much of the time he was just writing in a ledger. Only the priority lane saved me, and allowed me to get my flight. Merde! It can be the airport from hell.

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

I expect it to be a very busy weekend at CDG. I am due to fly out of T2 on Friday and I can’t wait until my bum is on the seat.

Next time esselle I would recommend the RER from the Gare du Nord.

[Pierre]

Unfortunately, the implementation of this excellent drop off system was organized the most erratic way…
For the last two weeks, I use a motorcycle-taxi to reach the E & F terminals. Reaching by car, I would have missed my flights, at least lost a lot of time.
It will not last long, and will be fixed within coming weeks, as soon as the Paris airport authority will wake up and discover that their great idea does not work as it was shown on their project.
Some months ago, at the same terminals, car parks were overloaded. It took some weeks for the PAA to understand that they had to amend and adapt the flow of cars to the exact needs, and review the number of airlines serviced out of the E mainly.
I trust this will happen also with the drop off.
Until then, the easiest way, with hand luggage, is the bike. 30mn max from Paris downtown.
Good anyway that the PAA discovered that over 3Euros/hour for the car park may not always be required, and that the drop off is sufficient.

A more general question would be the narrow roads accessing to the T2 (all terminals). There is no space where to expand or widen the paths, when these terminals have seen their pax grow heavily.
The Terminal E consists today of three different buildings, each of them being much larger than the ‘old’ D or C.

CDG is being upgraded.. so let’s hope these are just small incidents limited in time..

Safe flights to all !

[Pierre]

Good news at CDG 2 E & F!
Landing yesterday at the terminal 2E, I could notice positive changes on the way out of the car park.
It is now much better organized, the flow of cars at the entrance into the drop off area looks much smoother than a month ago.
Works are not yet over, but things wound on a good way !
Nice week end!

[Chardie]

I was told a long time ago.

There is the right way, the wrong way and the French way.

You will find a lot of this in CDG, I avoid the place like the plague.

[MarkCymru]

Unlike other airports, you can walk easily from any part of Terminal 2 to any other (landside – airside is, I concede, more of a challenge). So why would you spend 30 minutes going from 2C to 2E in a car?

The link from T2 to T1 works very well too. And, of course, the terminal is fully integrated into one of Europe’s best railway networks. All things that we can only dream of at Heathrow

The train service to Paris is not nearly as good as the Heathrow Express but it is much cheaper and it links to the rest of the mass transit network much better (with multiple interchange points, not just one on the edge of the central system)

I do agree that there can be long queues for immigration but I have found Aeroports de Paris staff are always on hand to manage the queues and they are usually remarkably good humoured. The Sky Priority lanes also always seem to be open and well policed. Again, in stark contrast to another leading European airport ….

[AnthonyDunn]

Esselle

Glad that you enjoyed Le Train Bleu: Snr Management treated me to a particularly enjoyable evening there not so long ago and it is a truly spectacular set of surroundings. The food wasn’t half bad either!

Otherwise, after too many occasions stuck on the Péripherique in the past, I find the RER is way the most reliable means of getting into/out of Paris to/from Roissy.

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